Does any one use this advertising? Is it a good idea?

Depends -- are you referring to Google Adwords?

Originally Posted by travelagent

Depends -- are you referring to Google Adwords?

Yes, I am. Sorry I did not point that out.

I use it, CPC is lower, don't have the stats to say if its a good ROI though

Originally Posted by Sczzy

Yes, I am. Sorry I did not point that out.

1. All accounts are defaulted to the content network

Google ships ads out to other search engines and content networks. Content network is the default setting for Google Adwords. Being in the Content network of Google is like the kiss of death for any marketer and their wallet. Ads shown here get killed in the click through rate (CTR) because the user isn't looking to click ads, they are interested in the website's content- not your ad. Besides this, on the rare occasion they do click your ad, conversions are miniscule. This is also where fraud occurs. Adsense based sites get their ads from the Content network. Ever heard of click robots?

2. Keywords are too general

Let's say someone is in the mortgage industry... they shouldn't use the general word 'mortgage' if they are selling reverse mortgages or second mortgages. Some people figure the word 'mortgage' will cover their bases, but it only drains their bank account.

3. Use quotes and brackets around your keywords

If a marketer is using the keywords 'making money on the internet' and doesn't use quotes or brackets, then ANY search that has ANY of those 5 words in it will trigger an impression and drive your CTR down dramatically.

The quotes and brackets specify the keyword phrase you want to focus on. With quotes, your search phrase stays intact using those words in the exact order YOU put them in. With brackets all the owrds you included need to be searched but other words may appear with the search.

4. Put the keyword in the title or body of your ad

About 80% of marketers don't use the keyword in their ads at all. I put in the words 'training my dog' and only one ad was an exact match. It's true that people search based on what they want to achieve. Training my dog was my goal. Another example would be 'buy tires'. If 'buy tires' were in the title or body of the ad this would add to the quality score.

5. There's a way to cut a deal with other search engines and bypass the content network

There are 3 places Google shows ads:
a. Home page
b. Content network
c. Other search engines

It's not uncommon to have 40% of your ads shipped out to other search engines. Once you track this activity you can cut a deal with them and pay half the price per click.

People who have a bad CTR and poor quality score end up paying more per click for minimal results. Google makes a fortune on desperate advertisers who are often novices in the business opportunity industry.

The average click through price for an inexperienced marketer in this arena is $2.00-$4.00/click. Experienced marketers only pay $.75-$1.00/click.

Google will alternate quality ads and poor ads on the home page in order to satisfy both revenue and users search queries. However, the poor expensive ads are usually getting low conversion therefore draining your account. Is it any wonder the stock price was north of $500 a share earlier this year?

Thank you Travelagent that is very good information.

If a marketer is using the keywords 'making money on the internet' and doesn't use quotes or brackets, then ANY search that has ANY of those 5 words in it will trigger an impression and drive your CTR down dramatically.

Does this mean that impressions are a bad thing?

Originally Posted by Sczzy

Thank you Travelagent that is very good information.

Does this mean that impressions are a bad thing?

Glad you found it useful; as for the impressions, I honestly can't answer you -- give it a try and see what happens.

Once you have profitable campaign, you can add in content network to the mix.

Originally Posted by tanjh

Once you have profitable campaign, you can add in content network to the mix.

Thank you, that is a good idea.

Normally if you starting a new ad, turn off content network but make sure you choose low cost keyword by doing research.

I only turn on content network during below situation.

1. let's say you running ad, got 10 clicks, cost you $8.00 and you got one sale commission atleast $16 minimum in your pocket.

2. run ad atleast 2/4 weeks to see steady sale commission. sometimes, you got sale initially, after none.

Good luck.

Thank you for the help!

you can alter your max cpc for the content network, thus limiting your budget, I agree its a good idea to get a good campaign going before you add content network in, it is however a good way to get clicks at a much lower CPC than google search listings only.

Yeah I am still new to using adwords but I am expanding more and more to get leads. I will even run some of thier cpm offers for that soon.

Google is improving their content network system a lot. They now give you more granularity in the information they provide. They give you a list of the sites within the channel you would be advertising and a break down of the conversions from the different sites. There are a lot of crappy sites but with that granularity you can actually go for the ones you receive a good quality traffic from.